The Best Chocolate for Cake Pops – A Dipping, Taste & Price Comparison

If those words have ever passed through your lips, it was probably due to a discouraging experience dipping your cake pops. Today you will get to take a close look at six popular dipping chocolates that were evaluated based on their consistency, ease of use, and taste. With additional information about their availability and cost, you’ll be able to determine which brand is the best for your cake popping experience.

***As a special bonus, I have a coupon code to share with you for a discount on my favorite dipping chocolate for cake pops. So make sure you scroll through to the end of the blog post to take advantage of the limited time offer before it’s too late!***

What Is Compound Chocolate?

If you think the best kind of chocolate for coating cake pops is real (or couverture) chocolate, it’s time for you to learn about an easier alternative called compound chocolate.

The main ingredients of real chocolate are chocolate liquor and cocoa butter, which require a special melting process called tempering. In compound chocolate, the chocolate liquor is replaced with cocoa powder and the cocoa butter with oil. As a result, the compound chocolate can be melted easily in the microwave. If you choose the right compound chocolate, your coating will be delicious and you will not feel like you are sacrificing taste for convenience.

To ensure that the dipping comparison between our six compound chocolates was fair, each was heated using the same process. A 14 oz. glass was filled to the top with chocolate wafers or cubes (depending on how the chocolate is packaged). Each glass of chocolate was heated in the microwave for 30 seconds on regular power, stirred, and then reheated in 15-second intervals at 50% power until melted, stirring in between each interval.

Helpful Hint: It is important not to overheat your chocolate. Doing so will result in chunks forming in your chocolate making it unusable. Keeping the coating warm throughout the entire dipping process is key to having a smooth coating on your cake pops. To avoid having to repeatedly reheat your coating, a chocolate melting pot is a great tool!

The Wilton Candy Melts took a total of 75 seconds to melt completely. It was obvious before I even dipped my first cake pop that the coating was way too thick. The thickness weighed down the cake pops, resulting in a number of them falling off the sticks. When I attempted to tap the excess coating off of the cake pops, the thick coating clung to the cake pops instead of dripping off. I had to use a fork to wipe the excess off of the pop. In the end, my cake pops dipped in Wilton Candy Melts dried with a lumpy coating. This brand definitely requires an additive for thinning if it is going to be used to coat cake pops.

In addition to the issues I had dipping my cake pops, I ran into some troubles when trying to get the temperature of the Wilton Candy Melts right. They cooled and started to thicken sooner than the other coatings so they required more frequent reheating. I also found them to be a little to easy to overheat. I burnt one batch and had to restart from scratch.

On a scale of 1 to 10 for dipping consistency, I give Wilton Candy Melts a 4 when unaltered.

Helpful Hint: Since one of the goal’s of this comparison was to find the easiest dipping chocolates to use for coating cake pops, nothing was added to the chocolates to alter their consistency. However, when making your own cake pops, if you find your coating is too thick, you can thin it using paramount crystals, Wilton Candy Melts EZ Thin, vegetable shortening, or vegetable oil.

Out of curiosity, I added 3 teaspoons of vegetable oil to the Wilton coating to thin it and found the consistency much improved. More experimenting would likely yield even better results. Little Miss Cake Pops is an amazing cake popper who uses Wilton Candy Melts, proving that the coating can be made to work. However, I highly recommend that beginners (or anyone who has had trouble making cake pops) consider using an alternative.

The below picture shows a cake pop dipped in unaltered Wilton coating (on the left) next to a cake pop dipped in Wilton coating mixed with vegetable oil (on the right).

The Make ‘n Mold Candy Wafers also took a total of 75 seconds to melt completely. The resulting coating was not as thick as Wilton’s but was still too thick for cake pop perfection. An improvement, none of the cake pops I dipped in the Make ‘n Mold coating fell off the sticks. However, I did have to tap them rather aggressively to get the excess coating off. My end result were cake pops with a slightly lumpy look.

On a scale of 1 to 10 for dipping consistency, the Make ‘n Mold Candy Wafers scored a 7 when unaltered. Adding paramount crystals, vegetable shortening, or vegetable oil would liking yield much improved results.

The Chocoley Coating took a total of 45 seconds to melt completely. The wafers were smaller in size than the Wilton and Make ‘n Mold wafers, possibly contributing to the quick melting time. Once melted, the coating was perfectly smooth, dripping right of the fork that I stirred it with. The coating was completely trouble-free and a pleasure to work with. It smoothly and completely coated each cake pop. After removing the cake pops from the coating, minimal tapping was required to get the excess off. One of my favorite things about the Chocoley coating was that it stayed thin even as it started to cool so it required less reheating than any of the other brands. The coating dried to a smooth flawless finish.

The Guittard A’Peels took a total of 60 seconds to melt completely. The consistency of the melted coating was slightly thicker than the Chocoley. The excess coating did not drip off the cake pops effortlessly but only minimal tapping was required. The Guittard coating dried perfectly smooth. I had no trouble working with it and I think it would be an excellent dipping chocolate for beginners or to use.

The CandiQuik Candy Coating took a total of 60 seconds to melt completely. It was not as thin and smooth as the Chocoley or Guittard but was no way near as thick as Wilton or Make ‘n Mold. It coated the cake pops well and the excess coating dripped off easily when the cake pops were tapped. The coating dried mostly smooth with a small amount of visible lumps.

The Merckens wafers took a total of 60 seconds to melt completely. The coating was a little thicker than is ideal for dipping. Thinning it with a little bit of paramount crystals, vegetable shortening, or vegetable oil would be beneficial. In the end, the Merckens coating dried perfectly smooth.

On a scale of 1 to 10 for dipping consistency, the Merckens wafers scored an 8.5.

Chocolate Taste Test

Since taste preferences vary from person to person, please keep in mind that the below taste ratings are simply a matter of opinion. For each chocolate, an average was taken of the scores given by two sweets enthusiasts doing a blind taste test. All of the brands offer at least two different flavors of coating; the chocolate option was used for this taste test.

The Wilton wafers had a flavor that I would not describe as chocolate. Words used during the taste test, such as “strange” and “unpleasant”, are a strong indicator that this is not my top choice for coating cake pops. On a scale of 1 to 10 for taste, Wilton Candy Melts scored a 6.

The Make ‘n Mold wafers had an enjoyable chocolate flavor. There were several mutterings of “Mmmmmm…” while enjoying the wafers during the taste test. On a scale of 1 to 10 for taste, Make ‘n Mold Candy Wafers scored a 9.

The Merckens wafers had a chocolate flavor that was also described as “light” when compared to others. On a scale of 1 to 10 for taste, Merckens scored a 7.

Chocolate Pricing Comparison

The retail prices listed below were collected from my local area and will vary slightly from location to location. Since online purchases include the additional cost of shipping, all website pricing listed below includes estimated shipping charges. Also, please note that not all chocolates are packaged by the same weight. For comparison purposes, the below prices are all calculated at a per pound rate, not a per package rate.

Wilton Candy Melts are probably the most readily available option for cake pop coating. You can find them at Michael’s in a wide variety of colors. They are packaged in 12 oz. bags, which are 3/4 of a pound. The pricing per pound for Wilton Melts is approximately $3.30 to 4.00.

Make ‘n Mold Candy Wafers are available at Hobby Lobby locations in a variety of colors. They are sold in 14 oz. bags, which are 7/8 of a pound. The price for Make ‘n Mold is approximately $3.40 per pound.

***For the next ten days only, you can try Chocoley at 15% off. Simply use the coupon code SUGARKISSED at checkout.***

Guittard A’Peels is available for purchase online in a handful of colors in addition to chocolate. The best pricing I have found is at gygi.com for $3.00 to $5.00 per pound (including shipping, depending on how much you purchase at once). The website has it available in quantities of 2.5, 5, and 25 pounds. You can also get it online at Stover and Company, Busy Bakers Supplies, and Global Sugar Art. Some cake poppers have also reported that they can get Guittard chocolate at Winco, however, I do not know if it is Guittard real chocolate wafers or the A’Peels compound chocolate.

CandiQuik Candy Coating is available at Target and some grocery stores, such as Kroger, in either chocolate or vanilla. It comes in 1 lb. packages for approximately $3.75. Each package also comes with a tray that can conveniently be used for heating chocolate and storing melted chocolate. It is worth noting that CandiQuik comes in block form, not wafers.

Merckens is available for purchase online in a handful of colors in addition to chocolate. The best pricing I have found is at gygi.com for $3.40 to $5.40 per pound (including shipping, depending on how much you purchase at once). The website has it available in quantities of 2.5 and 50 pounds. Your can also order it online at Busy Bakers Supplies and Global Sugar Art.

For the next ten days only, you can try Chocoley at 15% off.

Simply use the coupon code SUGARKISSED at checkout.*

*Savings is taken off the full retail prices. Excludes insulated cold pack shippers, gift certificates, Swissmar fondue sets, and sale/clearance items. Cannot be combined with any other discounts or special offers. Offer expires 11/19/15.

All opinions contained in this blog post are my own. Chocoley supplied free products to use in recipes shared on sugarkissed.net but no monetary compensation was provided for my review of those products.

26 Responses to The Best Chocolate for Cake Pops – A Dipping, Taste & Price Comparison

Thank you for this post. I’m a Merkens fan for the white and dark chocolate for sure. Some of the colors do not melt so well and some taste funny so I am sure it is the color in the chocolate because all of the colors are supposed to be “white chocolate” flavored.
I color my own for some of the colors because of that.